I dont think you're taking the mental anguish of being cooped up in a house 24/7 into account. Nor the seriously flawed home schooling system either. Have you seen or heard what this schooling actually consists of now? Its abysmal and fluctuates wildly from teacher to teacher. Combining these two and the mental pressures they are under trying to achieve the grades needed amongst this mess is almost unbearable for a lot of kids. They've children that have had a jail sentence thrust upon them and expected to just make do and carry on.
Exams have been a tried and tested method up till now. The whole education system has been geared to polishing the pupils so they can perform at these end of year tests. And no, if you mess up badly on the day its not the end of the world. Its why Prelims are a thing and can and are taken into account if a pupil fails spectacularly on the day.
But thats gone, we're told to rely on a teachers judgement instead. Im not sure if you've been following how many teachers have been acting during the crisis, perhaps I dont want to even know your views on it but from my perspective many have been extremely quick to drag their heels at doing anything to help the kids. The unions seem hell bent on politicizinging what instructions they give their members and seem to be thwarting any attempt the government makes at getting this generation of children the missing education they need.
Teachers are only human, some will be overly sympathetic to some kids and others may be overly harsh to the the ones they dislike. They'll be made Judge Jury and executioner based on how well they deliver home schooling. And from what Ive seen so far its atrocious.
Then we have the children of 'front line' parents who can still attend school in person and get an almost private education off of the teachers in a class that might have had 20-30 pupils before.
From what I gather Boarding Schools remain open. In reality for the most part these are the kids my Daughter is up against when it comes to placements. To even get an interview for medical school is near on impossible. And for the three Universities my Daughter applied for there was 600 students getting interviewed for 80-130 places.
Yes, the next 7 years will be very tough for the kids that do manage to get a placement. A baptism in fire so to speak.
My older Daughter is in the only class thats allowed back to Dundee University just now. Supposedly cadaver disection is not something that can be done from home. Who knew?